A new Era | Web 3.0 | premium television | next-gen CDNs

Web 3.0: premium television

1st generation Internet

1993-1999: Web 1.0. The first decade of the Internet was all about pioneering. We had dial-up internet, with slow and unreliable connections. We pioneered live streaming in 1994. The potential audience of the web was small. There was no business in content services. Video was a challenge. The first Global CDNs emerged, focussing on web delivery, using caching and DNS technologies. Internet was a technical revolution.

Content Delivery Networks go premium – But it won’t be the global CDNs

Content Delivery Networks go premiumBut it won’t be the global CDNs

Back in the nineties, when the first global content delivery networks (CDN) emerged, their focus was on offloading static content on the Internet. By deploying regional points of presence, these global CDNs could offload traffic from the small and filled up transit links. Global CDNs use the internet to distribute content to their regional hubs, and then ‘dump’ their traffic into internet service provider (ISP) networks. Which was a great approach for many years: costs went down, performance went up.

CDNs in Europe: trends

It was nice to catch up with all the other people in the industry on Streaming Media Europe, two weeks ago in London. Although many people are competing, the atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. Which is important!

What worried me about the European streaming industry is the lack of growth and profitability and lack of focus. Yes we had two crisis years. But streaming video should be a booming business!